Online marketing comes in many different life forms. With competition so fierce it is truly important to be able to utilize every platform and tool available to you online. Online consumers now more than ever really need to build their trust before they whip out their credit card and make a purchase. With the economy down people are also spending less and less right now so it is even more important to bring your A-game when marketing yourself or your business online. Local pay per click advertising can often times compliment you SEO efforts for search results.

Branding your business online right now is very important to make conversions on your website. If you have a handful of keywords or phrases you are targeting online and you are rank organically somewhere in the first two pages for a keyword and a person sees your organic listing and also your pay per click listing you have increased your chances for that person to find your website and come visit it. They might be more likely to click on one of your listings than someone with just one listing. Sometimes depending on the keyword a local PPC or pay per click advertising campaign could cost a fraction of what might think it costs. Growing an online business in today’s market place requires a strong branding approach. People need to see you in multiple areas before you start seeing sales happen or the phone ringing. People want trust and the only way that is built up is through repetition.

Are Nielsen’s DMAs for TV and radio synonymous with market areas for your Internet audience? This is an important question because it appears that Google may be testing local geo-targeted advertising based on these DMAs. This is from the PPC Hero blog:

Throughout the presentation Mr. Koehler focused his presentation on testing that Google has been doing at the DMA level (Designated Market Area).

The question is, will local geographic pay per click advertising move toward the DMA model of advertising? I don’t see how it can and here’s why.

The DMAs are defined by the geographic coverage area of TV and radio stations. That is, anyone who can listen to or watch a particular radio or TV station’s programming is considered a part of that DMA. This won’t work for the Internet because there is no defined DMA, nor can there be, due to the nature of search itself.

For instance, if a person is searching for real estate in the Burbank, California area they may or may not be located in the Burbank area DMA. What if that person is in Tokyo, Japan and considering a move to Burbank some time in the near future? That would certainly defy the DMA model, wouldn’t it?
Or what if someone in Dade County, Florida was in need of automotive services. Dade County is a fairly large piece of real estate. If you’re broke down on the east side of the county you likely don’t care about automotive services located on the west side of the county. You want something a little closer in proximity. That problem becomes an even bigger issue if you are broke down somewhere in West Texas where the counties cover a huge area of land.

You can see where this could be a problem with local pay per click (PPC) advertising. It is and always has been keyword-based. Why would it be anything else?

Of course, local geo-targeting is still about the keywords, but it’s also about the geographic area. But if the geographic area of the search query is defined by anyone other than the search user then it’s a model with far too many shortcomings. I just don’t see how DMAs are going to work for the online advertising market. I hope I’m understand the Hero’s post correctly.

If you are a small business serving a local demographic and you want to advertise online then I highly encourage that you try PPC – pay per click advertising. If you have competition in your area that is beating the socks off of you online then PPC is the perfect vehicle for fighting back. First, try Googling your geographic area and a keyword associated with your brand.

For instance, if you are an auto mechanic in Hanover, Pennsylvania then Google “hanover pennsylvania auto mechanic”. See if you appear anywhere on the first page. Furthermore, see who is there. If you recognize the names of the businesses as your competition and you aren’t anywhere in that mix then you should seriously consider pay per click search engine advertising to build new local business.

When you start your pay per click campaign you need to make sure that your website is optimized with local geographic names plus your industry keywords. Then you want to write great ad copy connected with your most important and highest converting landing page. If you have trouble with any of this then I recommend that you seek a professional PPC to help you along the way. Local PPC is a very rewarding experience for many businesses that try it. Pick a starting media budget that you can afford and test it out for your business.

Google AdWords has added some new features to its local pay per click advertising. I think these are pretty cool features.

No. 1, I’m not sure how this is going to affect click-through rates but the little pop up feature that you get with your organic listings is now going to be added to your local pay per click listings. I’m not sure this one will be beneficial but time will tell.

The feature I’m particularly excited about, however, is the new reporting feature for local businesses. This one hasn’t been rolled out yet, but local businesses will be able to perform their own metrics instead of having to create special reports. You’ll be able to tell if your leads came to you from Google Maps or Google Search. That would be helpful, wouldn’t it?

Keep in mind that when you manage local PPC ads you are targeting a geographical audience. Play that for all it’s worth.

Local PPC is a kind of advertising that allows you to reach your target market more cost efficiently than traditional advertising. You can target your keywords with geographic targeting and bid on your own keywords, which allows you to set your own budget and set the budget limits.

When you set up your pay per click advertising campaign, be sure to do the proper keyword research before you write any ads. Base your ads on the important keywords in your PPC campaign and you’ll also get more mileage from your advertising if you group your keywords in tight ad groups that are relevant to the optimization of your landing page.

If you plan your advertising campaign before you begin then your local pay per click efforts will gain more traction, your ads will cost less per click, and you can monitor your traffic and other stats more effectively. Local PPC advertising is a good way to drive traffic to a new website while you are waiting for your SEO to kick in.